Work Package Three

Engineering Energy

Diagram showing main target areas of work package 3 on engineering energy. The first target area T3.1 is harnessing spin currents, which will focus on spintronic materials and spin devices. The second target area T3.2 is energy conversion and control, which will include phonon engineering and plasmonic enhanced devices

Work Package Three (WP3) will engineer material systems with the aim of enabling the development devices and technologies that present intrinsic low-power operation. We will apply the unique thin-film materials development capabilities at the University of Leeds to develop new spintronic materials, or significantly improve existing through enhanced control of deposition, for the control of spin current. The processing of optimised materials into devices, locally functionalised using P-NAME, will be undertaken with the aim of assembling advanced spintronic systems incorporating spin injection, repeaters, and even gain. WP3 will also address the control and utilisation of thermal interactions that are often the cause of poor device performance, and the utilization of plasmons to enhance energy conversion processes (e.g. enhancing non-linear interactions). All of these activities rely on improved understanding of quasi-particle behaviour in advanced materials and will be supported by the optical/THz imaging and cryogenic near-field spectroscopy of phonon, polaron and plasmon modes.